When one sits at home and thinks about being without, you think about the big things- things like food and clothes and shelter. When you go on a journey like ours, you realize that you are more spoiled than you think and the things you miss (because you are assured of life's necessities) are your hair dryer, your make up, your internet, your music, your appliances and your gadgets. Take those things away and you are not suffering. You are decluttering.
We drive through miles of rural Zambia. All along the way are small villages. People are everywhere. Poor people living simple lives. They are not hungry or lacking shelter. Zambia is lush and fertile. Food is everywhere. People tend their crops. Goat herds watch their flocks. They live lives of industry or inactivity as you find in all cultures or races. Some little homesteads are beautifully clean and kept. Others are filthy and neglected. But they live and love and survive. They do this without the trimmings of western culture. They go to bed early and rise early as we also do when we are here.
There is a freedom one feels in such an environment which is more than the great open spaces and the proximity to nature. It has to do with the "being without".
Even though I know we will go back to the things of western life, I pray that I will go back lighter and free-er and that the Lord will help me to stay that way…
happy without and within!